More sophisticated business management, more efficient technology, and division of labor take landscaping into a new generation.

Second Generation Landscaping by Bruce F. Shank executive editor, and Ron Hall, assistant editor

The landscape business is entering a new generation. Large landscape manage-ment corporations have set a pace and level of sophis-t icat ion which smal ler companies are following. This transformation, grad-ual during the 60's and 70's, has now reached the major-ity of the market.

The nursery market , foundation of all landscape markets, is primarily a product market in a busi-ness world where service is king. As a result, the land-scape market is figuratively beingturned on its head, for both exterior and interior landscape markets.

Design, construct ion, and maintenance services far outvalue the plant mate-rial used in a landscape. Furthermore, design and construction are one-time b u s i n e s s p r o p o s i t i o n s , whereas maintenance is continuous.

W h i l e c o n s t r u c t i o n firms expanded into main-tenance and design, land-scape architects avoided maintenance and construc-tion. The majority of com-panies labelled design/build today were previously on the construction and maintenance end rather than the design end.

Landscape architects, who often voice concern over the installation of their designs by contractors, are ap-parently more worried about the re-sponsibilities involved in construc-tion and maintenance than installa-tion by others.

The long-feared fly-by-nighter is less a threat today because his level of

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Front-mounted rotary greatly increases productivity of mowing crews. This new Deere F930, and its sister walk behind mower, were designed by the company specifically for the professional landscape market.

sophistication is noticeably less than l e a d i n g c o m p a n i e s . T h e groundskeeper is fading into extinc-tion as the landscape manager takes his place.

Division of labor and specialization, both signs of higher level business, are in place in new generation firms. Com-panies dependent upon one person for both business and technical expertise can't keep up with the volume or effi-ciency of firms using modern tech-nology and business practices.

Most of the advance-ment has taken place in the maintenance end of the business. More than half the landscape contractors who were primarily con-struction in the early 70's now have maintenance di-visions. More than 80% also offer design services as well.

Colleges are changing to meet the needs of the mod-ern landscape business, adding business and mar-keting courses to their hor-t iculture and agronomy programs. Junior colleges find a growing demand for their landscape graduates. Many companies hire grad-uates of business colleges for business and marketing positions and then educate them to the technical part of the market.

It appears division of la-bor is resulting in land-scape companies hiring graduates of two-year col-leges to be technicians and g r a d u a t e s of b u s i n e s s schools for upper manage-ment.

"We have seen good im-provement in educational

programs for the industry," says Rod Keppel, Arbor Heights Nursery, Webster, NY. "I think public relations and management are important. The technical knowledge seems to be there."

"I see the two-year schools carry-ing the ball ," says Ray Gustin of Gustin Gardens, Gaithersburg, MD. " T h e two-year technical colleges seem to be really training more of a technician."

"Landscape contractors will have

to have a better understanding of money, particularly with interest rates the way they are," says Dave Pinkus, president of North Haven Gardens in Dallas, TX. "They have to have a better understanding of business and business practices."

Contractors like J. C. Patrick of Proscape, Baton Rouge, LA, want to go beyond maintenance to 'total exterior management'. "Once we get an ac-count," Patrick says, "we want to take care of everything having to do with the exterior."

Most of Pro-Scape's growth came from design/build work in 1984. Pa-trick is optimistic because he expects a new Jack Nicklaus development in Baton Rouge to attract more com-panies to his area and to raise stan-dards of construction and mainte-nance.

DiSanto Companies in Cleveland, OH, takes Patrick's thought a step further, offering exterior and inte-rior landscape design, construction, and maintenance. President George DiSanto maintains separate divi-sions for exterior and interior work, but often finds out about new inte-

Companies dependent upon one person for both business and technical expertise can't keep up.

rior work when bidding exter ior landscape projects . The inter ior landscape market in the U.S. has been estimated to have sales of $400 million in 1984.

David Burnley, Contra Costa Land-scaping Inc., Martinez, CA, said his company has gotten more into main-tenance the past four to five years due mainly to a building slump. Today, Burnley sees construction and main-tenance of the many business parks being built in his area as his future strength.

Maintenance does have its draw-backs, says Greg Boykin, of Boyko Maintenance in Wilson, NC. "If I'm going to follow the installation con-tractor or another maintenance com-pany, I want to make sure he's done a good job in the first place. If you don't

look the job over closely at first, all kinds of problems pop up. Boykin says he prefers to design and build a land-scape, then put in a proposal for the maintenance.

"The greatest need of the industry is good foremen who take primary responsibility and get the job done."

—Burnley

Bob Doman of Planned Outdoor Living in Ogden, UT, is finding his business shifting from large residen-tial to commercial. "Although our company has concentrated on large r e s i d e n t i a l a c c o u n t s , we h a v e gained more commercial accounts recently."

"There was a lot more commer-cial work than a year ago, maybe 5 0 % m o r e , " c la ims Ray Gust in , Gustin Gardens, Gaithersburg, MD. "But you have to remember, our res-idential work didn't fall of as much as the commercial during the reces-sion, so it didn't have as far to come back."

Part of good business planning is controlling the customer base. Mike McGuinnis, director of business de-velopment for Reinhold Landscaping, Flat Rock, MI, helped that company reduce its dependence on auto-re-lated industries. The Michigan com-pany r e c e n t l y landed a Federa l Express account in Memphis, 360 miles from Detroit. The good news is the auto market is booming again, but McGuinnis is still seeking a broader account base.

Still needed " T h e Industry has two big needs at the present t ime," says Burnley of Contra Costa. " T h e greatest need is for good foremen who can take pri-mary job responsibility and get the job done. Many c o m p a n i e s feel that's their biggest limiting factor right now.

"Also, we need to educate prop-erty managers and other prospective c l ients to establish a set of pre-q u a l i f i c a t i o n s for the i r mainte -

nance, says Burnley. They need to look past the initial price in deter-mining which company can meet their needs.

"In the past, property managers have looked at maintenance as a very simple operation that almost anyone can do. They eventually find out they come out way ahead in the long run if they work with an estab-lished company with well-trained personnel."

Good m a n a g e m e n t s k i l l s are needed more than anything else ac-cording to Dormán of Planned Out-door Living. "There a lot of people in the industry who can read a blueprint and do the technical work. But too often they try to do all themselves in-stead of delegating responsibility and managing people so that the job is done right and on time. Of course, they have to know how to deal with clients too."

Registration is a solution to fly-by-nighters says Boykin of Boyko. "To be recognized as a registered landscaper in North Carolina, you must first take a test. It separated the men from the boys."

A recent survey by Western Land-scaping magazine pinpointed nine primary problems facing the land-scape industry. They include lack of professionalism, low ball ing/un-d e r b i d d i n g , the e c o n o m y , un-qualified personnel, consumer igno-rance , g o v e r n m e n t regula t ions , profitability, shortage of supplies, and competition.

At the same time, the magazine c i ted ten leading opportuni t ies . They are business diversification, drought tolerant planting, mainte-nance, water management, drip irri-gation, renovation, irrigation con-sult ing, a u t o m a t i o n / c o m p u t e r s , public awareness of profession, and hardscaping.

The most dependable service ac-cording to the magazine's readers is maintenance, rated nearly twice as dependable as construction (52.8% to 31.8%).

The new generation of landscape management companies has real-ized that maintenance is a valuable part of a service company. It also is positioned to take on other services since it now has a business core which can handle nearly any ser-vice. This flexibility, coupled with division of labor and efficient tech-nology, is the new foundation of the l a n d s c a p e m a n a g e m e n t marke t .

WT&T